The Decemberists' New Album Is Totally a Rock Opera

Colin Meloy recently spoke to Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Daily about the sound and concept of the new Decemberists album, Hazards of Love, and guess what? "It's a twisty, fantastical story about a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William, who is desperate for the two of them to be reunited; a forest queen; and a villainous rake," says the report. So it's a Decemberists album, then?

"Everyone's going to call it a rock opera," Meloy said, and that's probably because it pretty much is: Tucker Martine, the album's producer, is sewing together a continuous narrative out of "16 or so" song segments, in the words of Rock & Roll Daily. It sounds like the sewing is necessary too, since Meloy also said, "There's a story there, but it's really painted with broad strokes."

Rock & Roll Daily calls Hazards of Love "the Decemberists' full-on classic-rock move, with Meloy and guitarist Chris Funk's pretty Zep-style fingerpicking punctuated by crushing stoner-metal lurches," though they've been doing stuff like that (minus maybe the "stoner-metal" part) for at least a couple records now. Fulfilling Meloy's proclaimed desire "to have different voices singing different songs, so it would be like a fake musical," Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden guest on the record. What, couldn't get Neil Diamond while you were at it, Meloy?

For now, the Decemberists have four remaining tour dates, all on the West Coast at the end of the month. However, they are planning a tour for the spring on which they will play Hazards of Love straight through in all its fantastical glory.